My first cookie: Coconut Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookie

Over the past few years cooking has become a great hobby for me. Thinking about it now I realized that it wasn’t a love of food that drew me to love cooking but a love of being creative and resourceful with a never-ending list of ingredients.

I first started having fun with cooking and baking when, a few years ago, I realized that I needed to pay much more attention to the food I was putting in my body. Not all food is created equal and I was amazed at the almost instant impact that food has on your body. Since that time, I’ve read a lot about people who try to live healthy lifestyles and what they eat and I’ve noticed a lot of the same ingredients come up again and again. I knew, though, that I can’t (and don’t want to) commit to eating the same thing day in and day out so it became a game to make tasty meals and snacks with healthy ingredients. Since I also really enjoy having friends and family over and cooking for them and my husband, I need to be able to make meals that are healthy AND delicious. I’m eager to proof that those two qualities can go together like peas and carrots (only figuratively…literally I hate the combination of peas and carrots).

One of my favorite things about cooking is being able to make something from scratch, or take a recipe and alter it to meet your needs whether it’s to make it more healthy, to change the flavor a little or to make up for missing ingredients.

With almost a week under my belt of Operation Cupboard Raid (see post here), I decided I was really going to put my creativity and my cupboard to the test and see what I could bake with only what I have on hand.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stand having oatmeal for breakfast for the next two weeks so my first priority was to use up some of those oats and make oatmeal cookies…but not your ordinary oatmeal cookies. I’ve had two bags of dried cherries in my cupboard for months ever since I was going to use them for a different recipe but and didn't so I decided those has to be worked into my cookie somehow as well. And what goes great with cherries? Almonds! Is it just me or have you ever noticed that anything with an almond flavor has kind of a cherry flavor or scent? And what about Jergen’s Cherry Almond hand lotion? Cherries and almonds need to be together.


Can you tell which is the cherry and which is the almond tree? Further evidence of their sisterhood. Photo credits here and here.

So, so far I was working with a Cherry Almond Oatmeal cookie but it needed...something. I've been on kind of a coconut kick lately and I think I'm making up for lost time (I used to believe that I hated coconut and have recently discovered that I, in fact, love it) so that was my no-brainer final ingredient for:

Yum!

Ok, so here’s the recipe, drastically adapted (and halved) from an oatmeal cookie recipe from a Taste of Home cookbook. I halved the recipe for two reasons: A. with Stud gone it would take forever to go through 3-4 dozen cookies by myself and B. I only had 1/2 cup of butter on hand. I know there are little tricks about halving and doubling recipes but I don’t know them and I’ve gotten along fine so far with just straight numbers.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 sugar (or alternate like Stevia)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup oats
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup flaked coconut (plus about 1/c up for garnish)
1/8 cup crushed almonds

Procedure
Combine butter and sugars in a mixing bowl
Add in egg, vanilla and almond extract

*That mixer is one of my favorite wedding gifts...and proof that we will always have a yellow kitchen.

Separately combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture of egg, butter and sugar mixing well
Separately combine oats, dried cherries, coconut and almonds and stir until evenly combined then add into your dough (I just had slivered almonds and wanted smaller chunks so I put some in a Ziploc bag and crushed them up with a rolling pin)

Spoon mixture onto cookie sheet and sprinkle with coconut flakes

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown (depending on your oven and the size of your cookies)
Let stand 1 minute before removing to cool on wire racks

*I happened to have some previously toasted coconut so for the first batch I omitted the coconut garnish before baking and sprinkled the cookies with the toasted flakes after removing them from the oven. I found with the second batch that it’s better to sprinkle the untoasted coconut on the cookies before baking because it adheres better and the coconut is beautifully toasted while the cookies are baking.

Enjoy! I think the cherries are the best part, they are a burst of flavor. The oatmeal and coconut provide a lot of great texture and flavor and the coconut is so pretty on top. The almonds get a little lost in the mix but make a subtle appearance now and then. I would consider adding equal parts vanilla and almond extract next time and possibly leaving the almonds in bigger chunks.

What are your ideas to spice up an oatmeal cookie?